Firelands Raid Heroic Mode difficulty now unlocked - US First Kills
The heroic mode is now unlocked in the US and Europe will follow shortly. Guilds started working hard to defeat the heroic versions of encounters and a couple of bosses already died.

Blood Legion got the US first kill of Beth'tilac. They didn't post a kill shot yet and we'll just pretend Europe is better if they don't.

Congratulations to both guilds for defeating the bosses so quickly!

Firelands Raid Boss Pages Update / LearnToRaid.com
While we're discussing Firelands Raid Bosses, I would like to point out that most of the Firelands raid boss pages have been updated with new videos from LearnToRaid.com.

PvP Season 10 Begins

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP Season 10 has officially begun, and players can once again take to the Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds to compete for the new Ruthless Gladiator PvP sets!

All Team Ratings and Personal Ratings have been reset, and any Conquest Points from Season 9 have been converted to Honor Points. Any Honor Points above the cap were converted into gold at a rate of 35 silver per point. Matchmaking Ratings, however, will be carried over into Season 10.

Another important event that coincides with the start of Season 10 is the distribution of rewards from the previous season. Players who were in the top teams from each battlegroup at the end of season 9 should be receiving their end-of-season rewards approximately one week after the end of the last season. These include Arena-specific titles until the end of this new season and, for players who have earned the rank of gladiator, the Vicious Gladiator’s Twilight Drake. It's very important for players who feel that they may be eligible for Arena titles and/or the Vicious Gladiator’s Twilight Drake to refrain from transferring their characters to another realm or faction until all rewards have been received.

If you have any further questions about Arena and Rated Battleground rewards, please read the FAQ.

This season introduces most of the gear I already posted on Patch 4.2 patch day (see below) and a new boss in Baradin Hold, Occu'thar (Wowpedia).

The strategy is pretty simple - One main tank, one off-tank, Occu'thar is tanked facing away from the raid and the off-tank taunts and starts tanking the boss whenever the current tank gets a stack of Searing Shadows. Healers keep everyone alive, and DPS make sure Eyes of Occu'thar die under 10 seconds while DPS'ing the boss as well, that's pretty much it.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

Occu'thar
This ravenous demon broke free of its cage and gained access to the western wing of the prison, devouring all of the inmates held there. Occu'thar's gluttony resulted in a body too bloated to escape its environs, effectively turning the prison wing into its new holding cell.

Focused Fire - Occu'thar sets his gaze on the location of a random player, then inflicts 35000 Fire damage every 1 sec. to players within 12 yards of the targeted location.

Searing Shadows - Occu'thar inflicts 105000 Shadow damage to players in a 60 degree cone in front of him, and increases Shadow damage taken by 100% for 30 sec.

Eyes of Occu'thar
Occu'thar forms an Eye of Occu'thar on every player for 10 sec. The eyes bore into their target hosts with the Gaze of Occu'thar.

Gaze of Occu'thar - The Eye of Occu'thar gazes at its target host, inflicting 6000 Shadow damage every 1 sec. for 10 sec.

Occu'thar's Destruction - After an Eye of Occu'thar remains attached to a player for 10 sec, it fully bores into the host and detonates with Occu'thar's Destruction, inflicting 25000 Shadow damage on all players.

Patch 4.2 - Arena Season 10 Armor Sets and Weapons
Arena Season 10 Armor sets and weapons will be available in this patch.

Stats balance on gear
Stat balance on gear should be looked at via much more than just boss loot tables. We consider reputation gear, tailor gear, Valor gear and the tier sets when examining what's available to you. If you wish, you can have Spirit on every slot but your belt (which can still be reforged). The priest tier set has Spirit on all 5 slots.

Having said that, the mindset that only cloth with spirit is priest healer gear (and cloth with no spirit is never priest healer gear) is a mindset to be resisted. If that is allowed to set in, then all the fun of looking at a potential new piece of gear and deciding for yourself whether it is an upgrade for you is removed entirely.

Along those lines, something to keep in mind is that there is more to improving the healing you do in cloth than simply stacking spirit. As you increase spell power, haste, and crit, and your tank increases health, armor and avoidance, boss damage negates less of your mana in the first place. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Arena Season 10 Start and new gear
You are correct. The season transition and introduction of new PvP items was different this time around, and we apologize for the lack of advanced warning.

The Season 9 set was removed today. The items available for purchase with Honor Points are now considered lower tier Season 10 items. They are still the same items from Season 9 in terms of aesthetics, but the item level and stats are slightly higher to ensure that the Season 10 honor gear has the correct item level relative to the Season 10 conquest gear.

It's likely this is how things will work going forward and we'll be sure to make that more clear when the next season transition takes place.

New basic transition flow:

1) Season X ends and rated play is unavailable; Season X gear becomes available for purchase with HP; CP is wiped.
2) One week later Season Y starts and rated play is available; Season X gear is removed entirely; Season Y introduces a low tier of items which replace Season X vendor items and are available for HP; Season Y introduces the new top items available for CP and rated play. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Note to websites/tools developers - Community API
The Community API Forum received a lot of attention from Blizzard employees recently and if you are maintaining a website or tools based on the Armory you might want to check it out for new features and changes.

That spirit cloth explanation is one of the most retarded explanations ever. They really don't know what they have done and what the consequences are. I just can't stop laughing at the idiotism of all this, especially since it concerns my main, but who cares, we get valor spirit gear and we can reforge.Makes me want to quite the game right now.

So last week we had the 365 vicious gear available for honor. We've all been farming endlessly to gear our alts up (and many people their mains) ready for the new season and then suddenly one week later there's a new set that is SLIGHTLY better available for the same price... Pretty irritating.

Sigh... I knew it, I hope Ragnaros is as brutal as can be or this isn't going to last.

Yeah totally man, the best guilds in the world are clearing content quick, that means the rest of you won't be able to enjoy the game! Even if you're stuck on normal Rag for a whole month or more! Will people stop using this idiotic logic that because the best guilds can clear this content, the patch sucks and everyone will be bored? Fucking nonsense.

[01:54:58] [XI] whoa hold on here
[01:55:03] [XI] stars got the world first kill
[01:55:18] [Bibi] stars exploited
[01:55:23] [XI] so what
[01:55:24] [Mechz] lol
[01:55:30] [Mechz] exploited what
[01:55:31] [XI] it's not any different than being a jobless american nerd
[01:55:33] [Bibi] ok fuck you renaming everything to US first

as several people said a couple days ago, regardless of how long it took for hard modes to be activated, the bosses were still gonna fall over, just cause stars kinda used clever use of Paid Service mechanics doesn't disprove the heroic bosses are gonna be all gone in a few weeks.